Wordless Play - June 29, 1999 by David Weisner

To honor this book and its true wordless power, I will leave it up to the pictures to convince you of its greatness.

There and Back Again: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

This is what began it all. I can remember listening to my parents read this book aloud to us as kids and being totally enthralled. Amazed that someone could create a world so thorough and engaging without actually having been there. While it would be a couple years before I tackled the weighty Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit was the prelude to my love of fantasy, the catalyst you might say. It was a book of camaraderie, bravery, and heroism. And though it was laden with frightful situations and horrible creatures, there was still the safe feeling of a good ending. Even during the final battle. In real life, I often feel a little Bilbo-ish. Reluctant to exit my cozy surroundings, yet eager to explore and experience. I feel much less like the world traveler and perhaps a little world weary Gandalf, though I hope... and at times... believe that I'm escaping my shell more often in strengthening ways (Again, a little like Bilbo).

On another note, this book, along with Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles (specifically Taran Wanderer) are huge influences on the challenge I'm undertaking beginning tomorrow. Tomorrow begins National Novel Writing Month and within the course of 30 days we are to attempt to write 50,000 words: a novel. I have had ideas running in my head for months now and many of them revolve around a small group of people banding together and journeying around a land they know little about. I have heard it said that it is best to write what you would genuinely like to read and in this case, I genuinely love a good journey, a little mystery, some special powers, and the broad genre of juvenile fiction. I just wish I had thought of Beorn - the man/bear - or a troop of oddly named dwarves, first.

All Pictures by the brilliant Justin Gerard. Check out his blog: Quick Hide Here and search for The Hobbit on the right column under "Projects."

A Miracle Man: Peace Like a River by Leif Enger

Leif Enger showed up on the bill for our local bookstore's reading room (Village Books), promoting his latest novel So Brave, Young, and Handsome an extremely worthwhile read. I was an avid follower and believed the rest of Bellingham must be as well. So I was stunned to see that only a handful gathered to listen to him speak. Before his reading began I chatted with him about life in the midwest and family life (as Talia and I had just started our own family). He was soft spoken and generous in demeanor and equal to the image I had cast of him based on his first book. His debut novel, one sprawling across the American Midwest, was Peace Like a River. My Uncle Kris, a torrential reader, recommended it to my mom, who in turn passed it to me. Now, you must understand that at the time I was racing through a reading phase I would liken to the punk movement or some sort of anarchist adventure. On my list at the time were books like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, anything by Chuck Pahlaniuk or Douglas Coupland. I was, internally, being fed by the edgy seditious nature of these novels. It was a vicarious position since I didn't really want to experience violence for no reason, nor take copious amounts of drugs just for fun, but I did enjoy the view through each narrator's fuzzy or blood shot eyes.

So when I opened Peace Like a River and read: "From my first breath in this world, all I wanted was a good set of lungs and the air to fill them with - given circumstances, you might presume, for an American baby of the twentieth century," I was not taken. I thought... "I'll give it a chapter and if it's just a feel good family novel - I'm done." (I now know the terror and joy of loving a child and this book is a treasure to me). Four pages later, I was hooked. A deeply loving father that seems to work miracles; an asthmatic narrator who struggles to understand the craziness around him; an older brother who's protective, strong, and headstrong; and perhaps one of the greatest little sisters in all of literature - a spaghetti western poet who cannot help but encourage and lean on her older brother.

It is a family book. But it is so much more. An adventure, filled with romance, redemption, evil, tremendous good, deep questions, and humor. With the arrival of Fall and the imminence of Winter, I cannot recommend this book enough. A perfect book to relax with, inside, on a rainy day. It is suspenseful enough to keep you up a little later, but not scary enough to force unwanted images into your dreams.

Before I wax eloquent any longer, here's a brief snippet. Enger's prose is like few that I know.

"Before dawn we settle among decoys in one of August's barley fields. Dad and Swede lay on their elbows side by side, the two of them whispering under a swath. Davy and I took the opposite flank, he with his clawed-up Winchester goose gun. I was too young to shoot, of course and so was Swede; we were there purely, as she said, "for seasoning." In all the years since I don't remember a colder morning afield. Rain can outfreeze snow. We lay between soaked ground and soaked swaths with a December-smelling wind coming over our backs. As the sky lightened we heard geese chuckling on the refuge away to the east. The rag decoys puffed and fluttered. I yawned once, then again so hard my ears crackled."

Andrew Henry's Forts

I wanted to add an illustration from the book where all the forts are shown...

Enjoy.

Andrew Henry's Meadow - by Doris Burn

The need for escape is essential in any child's life. That's why so many of us attempt, dream, or accomplish running away (not to trivialize a horrible and actual occurrance for so many families). Michael Chabon, quotes David Foster Wallace in his new book Manhood for Amateurs, when he states that fiction allows us to live other lives, to escape the prison of reality. While I will debate the fact that our reality is a prison - though it seems this way at times, I do believe that fiction allows us to retreat while simultaneously pressing on. One of the first books that I can remember, outside of the ubiquitous Dick and Jane series, was Andrew Henry's Meadow. Though not fantasy, it is not completely based in reality. A boy, desparate to invent, flees his "oppressive" family, and lands in a meadow, where he builds a fort. Other children from the same town have similar experiences and end up in the same meadow. Andrew builds forts for each of them based on their loves and thus they live, until their families come searching and the secret meadow is found.

The artwork blending with simple narrative gave just as much voice to the unspoken feelings of frustration as Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are. It went out of print for a while, but as far as I know can be bought once again.

My Bookshelf

Books are indispensible. Amazon.com seems to think otherwise and with the rise of the Kindle, I can do nothing but shake my head. My eyes already get tired looking at a glowing screen too long and, call me old fashioned, I want to turn a paper page. This blog is an attempt to recapture some of my favorite books and explain why they are "literature we need." I will not be relegating myself to an age category and I will refrain, as hard as I can, from adding books just to sound "well rounded" or "hip." I read constantly and find that I cannot finish one book before starting another. A habit both bad and fun. Ideally, these posts will come once a week and more than likely on a Friday or Saturday. I hope you enjoy the reading as much as I enjoy the writing. If you haven't heard of a book before, I hope you will make time to visit the library and check it out. However, if you believe me to be prophetic in my choices, feel free to buy them immediately. I'm pretty sure I know the books that everyone needs, so this really shouldn't be an issue.


To begin .... here is a picture of my own bookshelf. We don't have a lot of space in our duplex for more books, so I have pared down several times to this collection (and two or three bins in closets).

This should be a fun exercise and we'll see where it goes. I may run out of books to talk about, but I seriously doubt it.